Gen 1 Imma WHIP you!!!

May I notice that the Anime also got more and more bright as time progressed? People may say that the Anime was all happy but lets just compare Gen 1 Gym Leaders to Gen 3. First impressions only.

Brock vs. Roxanne.
Brock was a rough tough guy when Ash first got against him. Having a somewhat crappy past to boot, Brock wasn't exactly the most super happy trainer ever. Roxanne, on the other hand, being a teacher, was a very kind and friendly trainer. Case closed here.

Misty vs. Brawly.
Here's an exception as Misty was already introduced earlier on. Not much to compare.

Lt. Surge vs. Wattson
Surge was a bastard. Having no problems into sending a lot of pokemon straight into hospital, taunting and bullying younger opponents AND hitting on Misty. He was just a tough bastard - until Ash beat him. Wattson was a joke, a laugh, and a friendly ol' chubby. Case closed.

Sabrina vs. Flannery
Ooooh boy, do I really need to remind you how f*cked up Sabrina was? Turning people (including her own MOTHER) into dolls, keeping them captured in a mini city nearly crushing them...can you say dark? Flannery, on the other hand, was a friendly young inexperienced trainer, who kept smiling. Difference much? (Side note: Flannery was a lot tougher on the outside in the game)

Erika vs. Norman
The thing about Erika is that she's a bitch, prohibiting people from entering her gym. Not much of a dark person per se, but she does have a not so friendly side. Norman, on the other hand...yeah...right.

Koga vs. Winona
Koga is perhaps the least notable gym leader in Kanto, being about the only one who Ash beat fair and square in a normal fight. He's not half as dark as the others despite being a ninja. Winona....yeah. Kinda like with Brawly and Misty, there isn't much to say.

Blaine vs. Tate n Liza
Blaine was a broken man who had lost a lot due to all the tourist. But most importantly; he had no problem into commanding his creature made of pure fire to launch a blast of fire at a cute little mouse to send said mouse STRAIGHT INTO A VOLCANO. You see Tate n Liza doing that? No? Me neither.

Giovanni/Team Rocket vs. Juan
We all know Giovanni, to whom insurance money is more important as human lives. Juan is an artist, a preformer, and as such not a dark character either.

See the huge difference? It started in Johto already, with Pryce being the only bitter/dark person among the other gym leaders. Pokemon got bright.

Yeah, RBY was pretty dark. But, if you ask me, manga was even more "evil"... In it, the whole E4 and 3 gym leaders were freaking villains... there were "zombie" pokemon in the lost tower, and Koga's arbok got cut in half once...

OMG, RBY really is EVIL! never noticed that, i was like 10 back then, but this is freaky, all those whips, surge killing people with raichu(mega kick!), TR killing marowaks, baby cubone's WEARING THEIR MOM'S SKULLS???(genocide!), trainers with whips, ghost scaring you, genetic modification, mew(really small cute poke) giving birth to mewtwo, roughly 6 times it's size(mew being 1'04" and mewtwo 6'07")

jeez, nintendo, that's quite a big difference, going from jumping shrooms on the head, to killing poke's with people and vice versa...

As he mentioned in the second sentence, Koga's Arbok was severed in half in the manga, not in-game.

And hell yes, R/B/Y was terribly morbid. If you listened to Viridian Forest's/Seafoam Island's background music for a while, it could get pretty creepy. Heck, even the unintentional encounters of Missingno. scared me shitless seeing such glitchy Pokemon.

OMG, RBY really is EVIL! never noticed that, i was like 10 back then, but this is freaky, all those whips, surge killing people with raichu(mega kick!), TR killing marowaks, baby cubone's WEARING THEIR MOM'S SKULLS???(genocide!), trainers with whips, ghost scaring you, genetic modification, mew(really small cute poke) giving birth to mewtwo, roughly 6 times it's size(mew being 1'04" and mewtwo 6'07")

jeez, nintendo, that's quite a big difference, going from jumping shrooms on the head, to killing poke's with people and vice versa...

Click to expand...

I'll agree that RBY is a darker game but...

cubones wore their mom's skulls because cubone misses its mother

and

Mewtwo was genetically enginered from mew. Mew did not physically give birth to Mewtwo.

I agree with the whole RB was the darker game, but does anyone think the graphics somewhat add to it? It's definitely not as happy and colorful as subsequent games were, although it WAS the GB era. It's hard to explain, but it definitely adds to it to me.

And to the Mewtwo thing, he was almost shot to death in the radio drama released with the first movie in Japan. Actually, he was, but he brought himself back to life. =o Just a little contribution. And I've seen the manga.

Another observation: Almost all of the older trainer sprites have angry/evil faces or frowns. Now in D/P, they look as happy as if they've gone acid tripping. Again. x_x

I think we should be keeping in mind how uncontroversial things were even five years ago. Pokemon has existed for ten years, of course Green, Blue, and Red versions aren't going to be as up-tight as the newer generation, Satoshi Tajiri, Ken Sugimori, and the gang didn't have to fret about things being perfect without stirring up the oh-so popular controversy nowadays. It's only obvious as Pokemon progressed that it'd become more child-friendly, since that's how most of the franchise ended up: Directed for children. It'd be labeled inconsiderate, bad, and right-out wrong for kids if they continued in the direction of how the manga was. Last I recall, though, the manga doesn't seem directed at all towards children, so I'd put it in a teenaged label.